Bomb bid love cheat soldier guilty

A love-cheat reservist soldier has been found guilty of trying to murder his wife with a booby trap in a car

A love-cheat reservist soldier has been found guilty of trying to murder his pregnant wife by booby-trapping a car with a hand grenade.

Nicholas Fabian, 33, planted the high-explosive device in the driver's footwell after nurse Victoria Fabian confronted him over an affair.

The explosion happened as Mrs Fabian, also 33, started to drive away in the borrowed Mazda near the family home in Highview, Vigo, Kent, on March 5 last year.

Her eight-year-old son, who was also in the car, managed to get out unscathed while her unborn child also survived unharmed. Mrs Fabian gave birth to the healthy baby boy three months later.

At Maidstone Crown Court Fabian was found guilty of attempted murder and causing an explosion likely to endanger life.

Fabian, wearing a suit and tie, showed no emotion as the jury of eight women and four men returned its verdicts after just an hour's deliberation. Mrs Fabian attended court but was not in the courtroom to hear the verdicts read out.

During the blast, shrapnel ripped through the driver's compartment, causing massive leg injuries to Mrs Fabian, who still walks with the aid of crutches. Her son Charlie, now aged nine, escaped to safety through the passenger door.

Seeing his wife alive and screaming in agony, Fabian helped her out of the wrecked car before fire caused by shrapnel penetrating the engine engulfed it.

During the two-week trial, jurors heard that Fabian had stolen a hand grenade from a firing range during weapons training in north Yorkshire.